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State v. Abdelhaq4/16/2003
In November 1999, appellant Abdelhaq and his female companion, Dana Tozer, were vacationing in the Wheeling, West Virginia, area. They were from Cleveland, Ohio. Ms. Tozer had been in an automobile accident in June 1995 and was paralyzed from the waist down. As subsequently brought out at trial, the appellant suffered from various mental problems, including a form of psychosis caused by long-term drug abuse. One of the drugs the appellant frequently abused was cocaine. The record does not show any history of violence between the appellant and Ms. Tozer.
On November 7, 1999, the couple checked in for two nights at the Hampton Inn in Wheeling. They were given a room on the first floor. On November 9, 1999, some two hours past the noon check-out time, the hotel staff attempted to communicate with the appellant and Ms. Tozer by knocking on their door and by calling from the front desk. There was no response. After trying to gain entry to the room with a pass-key and determining that the room had been barricaded from the inside, the hotel staff called the Wheeling Police Department.
The police were initially unsuccessful in getting a response from the room. Later, the police, and appellant Abdelhaq's brother who had arrived on the scene, heard the appellant say that he would come to the door. The appellant, who was mumbling at that time, also indicated that Ms. Tozer was going to take a shower. Earlier that morning, appellant Abdelhaq had stated to his brother, by telephone, that he was going to commit suicide. At no time during the afternoon of November 9 did Ms. Tozer respond to attempts to communicate with the couple. Nor did the appellant come to the door as promised. Finally, approximately forty-nine minutes after their arrival, the police made a forced, warrantless entry into the room. The appellant then grabbed a knife and a plate of what appeared to be cocaine. The police disarmed him and placed him in handcuffs. Soon after, the body of Dana Tozer was discovered on the floor of the bathroom. As the medical examiner later testified, Ms. Tozer was dead as the result of 233 knife wounds. Substances which appeared to be cocaine and marihuana were found at the scene. The appellant was taken into custody, transported to a local medical facility, and subsequently transferred to the Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville, West Virginia.
Police Detective John Wroten of the Wheeling Police Department was one of the officers who secured the scene and collected evidence concerning Ms. Tozer's death. Specifically, the record indicates that Detective Wroten: (1) helped move the handcuffed appellant from the room to a group of paramedics who were waiting in the hotel corridor, (2) located several items in the room which were taken as evidence, including a brass pipe used for smoking and a baggie containing what appeared to be marihuana and (3) completed a number of written "evidence forms" which constituted part of the chain of custody with regard to the items found. In addition, Detective Wroten, the following day, participated in the search of the vehicle which had been driven by appellant Abdelhaq and Ms. Tozer to the Hampton Inn. One of the items seized from the vehicle was a disposable camera. In a written report to the Wheeling Police Department, Detective Wroten stated that the camera "may shed some light on the activities of the suspect and victim" prior to the homicide.
II. THE PROCEEDINGS BELOW
On January 11, 2000, an Ohio County grand jury returned an indictment against appellant Abdelhaq charging him with the murder of Dana Tozer. W.Va. Code, 61-2-1 (1991). It is undisputed that Police Detective Wroten was a member of that grand jury.
Following the return of th
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